After pulling out of the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, the former president proposed holding a debate in Pennsylvania a week earlier. Harris’s team said in a statement that Trump was “going straight to Fox News to save him.”
Weeks after Donald Trump pulled out of a scheduled debate on September 10, the former president has proposed a televised showdown with Kamala Harris, but on his own terms.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump offered to debate Harris but with a changed date — September 4 — as well as a changed television venue, insisting on the more friendly (to him) confines of Fox News Channel rather than ABC, which was scheduled to host the planned September 10 debate.
“The debate against Sleepy Joe Biden was originally scheduled for ABC, but was canceled because Biden will no longer be participating, and I am in a lawsuit against ABC and George Slobodopoulos, thus creating a conflict of interest,” Trump claimed in his post.
“The Fox News debate will be held in the great state of Pennsylvania, at a location in a region to be determined. The debate will be moderated by Bret Baier and Martha McCallum, and the rules will be the same as my debate with Sleepy Joe, who was treated so harshly by his own party — but with a full audience in the arena!”
In response to Trump’s call, the Harris campaign issued a statement calling on Trump to act with courage and follow through on his previously announced commitments. “Donald Trump is running scared, trying to back out of a debate he already agreed to, and running straight to Fox News to save him,” the statement read.
“He should stop playing games and show up for the debate he has already committed to on September 10.” Harris campaign officials said they would be open to discussing further debates after the September 10 issue, which — if Trump does not show up — would see Harris “take advantage of the opportunity to speak to a national audience in prime time.”
In a dig at Trump's previous comments about the Biden debate, the Harris campaign statement added: “Mr. Anytime, Anywhere should have no problem with that unless he's too scared to show up on the 10th.”
